Learning About the Different Types of DNS Attacks

Domain Name Server, typically referred to as just DNS, is a type of protocol that translates the domain name of a website into an IP address. Sometimes the DNS is referred to as the phone book of the internet and is considered its foundation. For people who know anything about protocols, DNS seems pretty simple. Due to how popular DNS is, it only stands to reason that people who wish to cause harm would choose DNS as a starting point. Below are examples of different types of DNS attacks for which companies and internet users need to be aware.

DNS Attacks

DNS attacks are all too common. To better understand them, you have to understand that they can be divided into a few different categories, all of which require a different type of DNS protection:

• Reflection Attacks – This is a DNS attack that targets third-party victims, including those who don’t even run a DNS server. Unfortunately, this is one of the most common types of attacks on the internet. One reason is because it’s hard for officials to identify the attacker.

• Server Attacks – These types of DNS attacks are aimed at the servers themselves. They can cause all kinds of problems, but the most common is a “denial-of-service” attack. When this happens, it prevents others from visiting a certain website. This is the same type of attack that’s used to obtain all of the data a company stores on its DNS server. By studying the data obtained from the DNS server, attackers can learn the network infrastructure of a company and use that information to launch more attacks in the future. In some cases, this type of attack is used to simply gain complete control over the DNS server. It’s typically launched on internet service providers who host a large number of public DNS servers.

• Spoofing Attacks – The goal of this type of attack is to change a valid DNS response into a malicious response. People typically use this to redirect internet users to a malicious site instead of the legitimate site they intended to go to. Due to this, these types of attacks are used a lot in phishing scams where people are trying to find ways to gather financial or personal data. Once a DNS server is tricked into sending people to the wrong site, it’s very hard to detect this kind of attack because the person who is visiting the site is doing everything right.

All of the attacks talked about above are in wide use today. This makes DNS attacks one of the biggest threats on the internet and makes DNS protection a top priority for anyone who surfs the web.